SpyBiotech has raised £4 million from Google’s venture capital to develop superglue for vaccines

Siliconreview Team
2017-04-06

SpyBiotech, an Oxford University company is making a leap in biotechnology by developing a ‘super glue’ to create vaccines. The superglue technology is supposed to help in producing vaccines quickly, cheaply and effectively to combat pandemics and other diseases.

Google’s venture capital arm is going to invest £4 million, and Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI) is backing SpyBiotech to spin it out into an independent business. The funding at an early stage is going to be used to trial SpyBiotech’s bonding technology. Further funding will be required while making further developments like licensing the technology to other vaccine makers.

According to the research done by Oxford University’s Department of Biochemistry and the Jenner Institute, it was found that the two segregated parts of Streptococcus pyogenes bacteria, the bacteria causing strep throat and other infections, had a high affinity to re-bond. This affinity to integrate between the parts led to the development of the biotech superglue which can be used to bond other vaccines together. SpyBiotech is hoping to use this glue to develop vaccines which will bind onto viral infections. This will replace the past techniques which were ineffective.

Co-founder of SpyBiotech and Associate Professor at the Jenner Institute at Oxford University, Sumi Biswas says, “We view this superglue technology as a game changer to enable faster development of effective vaccines against major global diseases. We are excited to begin the journey of taking this versatile and innovative approach forward and moving our new vaccines from the laboratory to human clinical testing.”